4.7Gbps test showed cable is future proof, no need for fibre, says KDG’s Glatz

Kabel Deutschland (KDG) conducted its recent record-breaking 4.7Gbps broadband speed test to show cable’s capabilities to those considering building fibre on a large scale and also to demonstrate the future proof nature of the cable network to housing groups, according to KDG chief technology officer Lorenz Glatz. He was speaking at the international technology summit at ANGA Cable this morning.

KDG is currently offering a top tier broadband service of 100Mbps. Glatz said that the biggest challenge with the 4.7Gbps experiment was to fill that amount of capacity and said that few people were using even the 100Mbps service to full capacity. Average peak use was much lower than the headline top speed, he said.

Glatz said that video traffic was increasing rapidly, but use was still massively lagging behind what the maximum nominal speed could support. He said that it was possible that KDG could offer 1Gbps services within five years but that it was unlikely that users would use the maximum capacity because there still wasn’t enough broadband content available to fill the pipe.

KDG recently completed its 4.7Gbps trial with technology support from Arris to show the capability of the existing HFC infrastructure by converting the entire spectrum to IP.

IP-based video is driving the transformation of cable networks’ infrastructure, according to Bruce McClelland, group president, Arris, also speaking at the international technology summit. McClelland said that the introduction of home gateways and in-home networking over MoCA and other technologies was driving change.